We are excited to announce that a paper from the Kim Lab, “Primary tumor genotype is an important determinant in identification of lung cancer propagating cells,” is one of six finalists in a contest to name the best paper to appear in the journal Cell Stem Cell during 2010. View the paper’s abstract here.

The paper is the first to identify a lung tumor-propagating cell population. Additionally, the findings suggest that lung cancers of different genotypes have tumor-propagating cells with distinct markers; therefore, tumor samples should be separated by genotype in order to study tumor-propagating cells.

The winner of the contest will be determined by online voting throughout May; you can view information about the finalists and access the ballot here. Which of these papers do you think had the biggest impact on the field? If you’d like to vote for the Kim Lab paper (and we hope that you will!), it appears third on the list.

The winning paper will be announced at the Cell Press booth at the ISSCR Annual Meeting in Toronto on June 16, 2011.